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The spirit of a 27-year Capitol Hill favorite may live on in a new form in the Central District.

Early construction planning for a new bar and lodging project across the street from the new Midtown Center development at 23rd and Union involves a much-loved name in Capitol Hill food and drink — Cafe Pettirosso.

With preliminary planning taking place to start the year, the proposal is moving to the next phase of construction permitting on a project that would transform the 1105 Building, primarily used for retail in recent years and once lined up as a new burger joint, into a new bar below short-term living units and a new — and tiny — hotel envisioned to rise as a small accessory structure on the lot.

The building is currently home to the Nile’s Edge healing center.

According to King County records, sisters and business partners Miki and Yuki Sodos purchased the property for $757,000 in a sale that closed March 28th.

Atelier Drome has provided early architecture and design work on the project.

In January, the Sodos sisters announced longtime favorite Cafe Pettirosso would close after 27 years over the challenges of surviving the economic challenges of the pandemic and planned redevelopment of the 11th Ave building the cafe called home. In early February, CHS was there as Pettirosso said goodbye with a visit from founder Robin Wright who sold the cafe to the Sodoses in 2012.

“Pettirosso loves you Seattle, but the path of small business is crushing right now,” the cafe’s owners said in their goodbye announcement. “We would have stayed forever but are exhausted and frustrated on all fronts. We stayed open every day during the pandemic, the protests, snow storms, years of construction, and gentrification, but it is now our time.”

Now it may be time for Pettirosso to live on. There has been no official announcement for the new project but the endeavor would create a new space that could echo the old cafe’s comfortable bar while expanding the business opportunities with an offering of unusual and well located boutique lodging.

Across the street, Midtown Center is opening with what should be a bustling mix of hundreds of new apartments plus Black arts center Arté Noir, a pet supply store, a new Jerk Shack location, and a new home for neighborhood bar The Neighbor Lady after its displacement in a tiff with 23rd and Union marijuana entrepreneur Ian Eisenberg. The new development will also be the new home of Raised Donuts. The artisanal doughnut shop will leave behind its space at 1101 23rd Ave neighboring the future Pettirosso project, opening up another opportunity for a new venture on this Central District block.

Meanwhile, the Central District can look forward to new beer-focused projects opening in the neighborhood while they wait for the Pettirosso project to take shape. On E Cherry, Métier Brewing Company is opening a new taproom with Japanese street food from Umami Kushi. And at 23rd and Union, 23rd Ave Brewery is starting its beer-filled relationship with its brewers’ home neighborhood with a small production and filling shop at 23rd and Jackson.

Back on 11th Ave, the loss of Pettirosso could be another sad sign of the kind of change neighbors are tired of seeing — or it could be a blip. Developer and building owner Liz Dunn said she is hopeful of finding a new food and drink business to put the Pike/Pine space back into motion as her plans to overhaul the building to add more office space and upgrade its auto row infrastructure move forward.

For the Sodos sisters, the new Central District project will join their continuing business efforts at the original Bang Bang Cafe in Bellown and Othello’s Bang Bang Kitchen. How much Pettirosso will end up in the recipe remains to be seen but here’s betting that the vegan mac and Pettirosso’s spirit of neighborhood and community will live on.

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.